Artists are experts at seeing and arranging their environments in unorthodox ways–sometimes spare and Zenlike, other times cluttered, in seeming disarray. While some artists’ ideas stem from their own fertile imaginations, many arise from the museums, galleries and friends’ homes they frequent, the clothing and accessories they favor, their openness to new concepts.
For those without an artistic bent, here is a selection of books, some brand new, others classics, that offer suggestions on how to live in our homes with a bit more style.
At Home With Art
By Estelle Ellis, Caroline Seebohm, Christopher Simon Sykes (Clarkson N. Potter)
This useful book features two sections. One focuses on the homes of artists and collectors who seem to have that innate ability to mix and display. Take, for example, contemporary artist Jennifer Bartlett, who surrounds herself with art in an industrial building in Manhattan; Washington, D.C., collector Sally Epstein, who filled her five-story townhouse with a staggering number of Edvard Munch works; and husband-and-wife collectors Agnes Gund of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and art attorney Daniel Shapiro, who skillfully combined his Chinese and African art with her modern collections in a New York apartment. The other part of the book focuses on the how-to’s of framing, conserving, shipping, lighting, selling art and visiting great art in museums that once were homes, such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston or the Phillips Collection in D.C.
Brilliant Color at Home
By Elizabeth Hilliard (Watson-Guptill Publications)
The attraction of this book about color is threefold: the historical context that tells us about the use of color in times past, such as during the Bauhaus period; the wilder and zanier use of color such as mixing yellow cabinets and green backsplashes in a kitchen; and how the choice of colors can radically change the look and feeling of a space.
Classic Modern
By Deborah K. Dietsch (Simon & Schuster)
The architects who designed many of the best classic houses in the 1940s and ’50s can be considered artists who worked in three dimensions, according to the author. In the most interesting houses, designed by such masters as Richard Neutra, Paul Rudolph, Albert Frey, Mies van der Rohe, and Charles and Ray Eames, the homes reveal the architects’ inventiveness through the choice of fewer walls, different floor levels, expansive window walls and imaginative materials recently added to the market, such as plastic laminate. Many of the furnishings selected to fill the rooms in these houses were just as artistic and novel in their day (for example, stacked chairs, modular shelving systems, quirky sofas resembling marshmallows). The finest examples of these furnishings are illustrated at the back, including the Nelson Sunburst clock, Eames walnut stools, the Risom lounge chair made from parachute webbing, and the Bertoia bird chair.
Decorative Hardware
By Liz Gordon and Terri Hartman (Regan)
What may sound a bit ho-hum actually becomes quite artistic and beautiful when careful selection is made. This new book captures the Old World craftsmanship that went into doorknobs, cabinet handles, thumb latches, hinges and much more. Before the Industrial Revolution, American hardware was usually handmade, the authors write. Both are well-acquainted with this subject and are owner and manager, respectively, of Liz’s Antique Hardware in Los Angeles. In addition to photographed examples, the authors tell how to find old hardware and advise on practical and decorative considerations, including stylistic choices according to a room’s period, color scheme and function. The book is a good addition to the library of anyone who is remodeling or freshening a piece of furniture or a room, though nowadays the choices are rarely inexpensive, particularly when bought in multiples for cabinets, drawers or doors. The glossary at the back allows anyone to talk the talk. For example: A bin pull is a cupped furniture handle mounted to the surface of the furniture; a tubular latch is a tube-shaped lock used in place of a mortise lock.
Design and Detail in the Home
By David Linley (Harry N. Abrams)
Linley, son of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, is known for his beautifully crafted furniture, architectural boxes, humidors and artwork. But his ability at interior architecture and design is not so well-publicized. This handsome book shows his great style in his own London home–a bathroom that better resembles a room with its wooden cabinetry, large tub and French armoire filled with towels, or the master bedroom with antique tester bed draped in a luxurious tapestry. The book also shows Linley’s appreciation for a variety of interiors from Nina Campbell’s book-lined dining room to a calm drawing room owned by art connoisseurs who wanted their collections to be the showpiece. The text is nicely written and Linley organizes it in the way one enters a home, starting at the hall.
From a House to a Home
By Jemima Mills (Collins & Brown)
This is another book that focuses on making a house family-friendly for all members by creating distinct spaces to gather and to be alone. It’s most useful for those with young children. It lists ideas for weekday and weekend meals and for family projects for rainy days and sunshine, and suggests how to divide household chores and guarantee kitchen safety. Some ideas for home offices and the family gallery would work well even for empty-nesters.
Living Textures
By Katherine Sorrell (Chronicle)
Texture is as important a tool in creating an interior as is color, shape, size or quantity, and many artists understand this concept because of the textures they readily incorporate in their artworks. This London-based writer shows how different textures for all the elements of a home–walls, floors, furniture, window treatments and accessories–can create distinct moods. But choosing the right texture and combining it with others requires skill and practice. She divides textures into the three schemes of neutrals, soft colors and strong colors, and includes a side “flip book” with tabs of photographs of different textured swatches so homeowners can mix and match to their heart’s content before they make expensive purchases.
Lofts: Living and Working Spaces
By Francisco Asensio Cerver (Watson-Guptill)
Another addition to the increasingly crowded field of loft books, this one offers new insight on making an old or new-style loft into a home, and not just to painters, architects and other art-related professionals. Within are floor plans and schematics, plus quirky and elegant interiors that follow few traditional decorating rules. A loft in Barcelona combines a warm kitchen with butcher-block counters and stainless-steel appliances but secondhand furniture. A former post office in London has been opened to accommodate large parties and the owners’ kitschy furniture that ranges from a leopard-covered sofa to a collection of plastic toys from fast-food restaurants.
Modern Comfort
By Katherine Sorrell (Rockport)
The theme of this book is that homeowners seek the practical and pleasurable in their surroundings, and to create the right balance takes training the eye. Furniture may be basic and upholstered in a natural palette, but it needs to be comfortable and serve the room’s function as well as please the eye through contrasts of color, texture and pattern. What also makes rooms comfortable are favorite objects for an individualized look.
Shaker: Life, Work and Art
By June Sprigg and David Larkin (Smithmark)
The Shakers’ simple, graceful way of living reveals how elegant uncluttered architecture, furnishings and objects can be. Though the work of the Shakers was not intended to be art per se, the results are as beautiful as any minimal work, and fit well in contemporary and traditional settings. This book brings together a staggering number of photographs of Shaker homes, meeting houses, sewing and school desks, built-in cupboards, chairs with woven taped seats, homespun yarns and the most prosaic–flat brooms. The only downside: Prices have zoomed, thanks to dwindling output and growing appreciation.
Writers’ Houses
By Francesca Premoli-Droulers (Vendome)
Houses play an important role in a writer’s imagination, helping to stimulate creativity and ideas. In the writers’ homes featured in this book, no simple formula emerges, except that they are filled with personal belongings and collections, lots of color, and comfortable tables, chairs and sofas for reading, thinking and writing. Some homes are busy and disordered (Jean Cocteau’s) while others are spare and mellow (William Faulkner’s). The most interesting part may be the text that lovingly tells about the writers’ urge to nest. For some, the remodeling and decorating was a direct reflection of their success–or failure. Virginia Woolf added several “water closets,” thanks to the strong sales of her book “Mrs. Dalloway.”
Zen Interiors
By Vinny Lee (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)
While the art of feng shui may instruct how to furnish our homes to create the right balance, one look that has emerged from that knowledge is the Zenlike interior, which reflects calm and tranquility. How is it achieved? Through repeated editing to create simple, minimal designs that succinctly balance hints of color, texture, shape and light. Objects work as accents rather than as a focus.
